‘The Bone Bed’ by Patricia Cornwell
Posted on April 2, 2013 by Victoria Brownworth in Mystery, Reviews
A new Kate Scarpetta novel is always highly anticipated by devotees of lesbian detective fiction. Patricia Cornwell has been much in the news these days, and not just because of her new novel, The Bone Bed (Putnam), the 20th in her Kay Scarpetta series and her 30th book. (more…)
‘Body Geographic’ by Barrie Jean Borich
Posted on April 2, 2013 by Rachel Wexelbaum in Bio/Memoir, Reviews
During the dawn of the Middle Ages, the average peasant rarely traveled more than sixty miles from their ancestral home. People did not dare move far from familiar people, places, professions, or ideas, for fear of falling off the edge of the known world. At the same time, peasant faces and bodies reflected their exposure to the elements, revealing a deeper connection and knowledge of that world than modern people will ever have. As they had no mirrors, those peasants did not spend much time reflecting on their identities or their sense of place. The longest journey they would ever make would be to Heaven, and they believed what priests and fellow villagers told them to be true about themselves. (more…)
‘Calling Dr. Laura: A Graphic Memoir’ by Nicole J. Georges
Posted on March 29, 2013 by Cathy Camper in Illustrated, Reviews
Nationally, Portland, Oregon is known for being a rainy green city of bicyclists, 20-something hipsters, and enough log-jammed trends from the nineties to fill a whole season of Portlandia. One of the ancient trends that still thrives in the Pacific Northwest is the making of zines. And while the nation at large may have discovered PDX via Portlandia, it’s hard to imagine putting a bird on anything if Nicole Georges hadn’t imagined Portland first. (more…)
Romance and Religion: Anne Brooke and Dennis Paul Stradford
Posted on March 28, 2013 by Dick Smart in Interviews, Romance
Since the major religious festivals of the Spring Equinox cycle are underway I thought I’d take a look at two romance writers whose Christian faith informs their writing. G. K. Chesterton wrote, “The very word ‘romance’ has in it the mystery and ancient meaning of Rome.” But this mystery can have a sinister aspect as well as a revelatory one and for the writers I spoke with, Anne Brooke and Dennis Paul Stradford, both meanings are present. (more…)
‘Murphy’s Law’ by Yolanda Wallace
Posted on March 26, 2013 by Anna Furtado in Reviews, Romance
Samantha “Sam” Murphy’s business is leading people up the challenging Himalayan peak of Annapurna I. She’s proud of the fact that in all the years she’s been at it, she’s not lost one hiker during the dangerous journey. Murphy’s Law as Sam knows it is that everyone returns from the mountain alive, no exceptions. Even though Sam keeps on her toes ensuring everyone else’s well-being, she’s constantly battling against being overcome by the memories of her own bitter loss of years ago—the past that she’s still grieving, and the past with which she’s still uncomfortable. Because of her own emotional turmoil, she’s determined to keep her distance from the charming Dr. Olivia Bradshaw, especially when the doctor offers her a chance for a little recreational diversion on the trip. It’s not that Sam isn’t up for such things. It’s just that there’s something about Olivia that makes Sam realize an affair with her might lead to more than she bargained for. Olivia has some demons of her own to conquer. Never one to actually invest in a relationship, she’s drawn to Sam with feelings that are new to her—and she battles to figure out what she wants to do with them, because if she yields to them, she’s afraid her walls will come tumbling down around her. (more…)
‘Appetite’ by Aaron Smith
Posted on March 26, 2013 by Julie Marie Wade in Poetry, Reviews
At this year’s AWP, I had the pleasure of reading in a four-hour, cross-genre literary marathon called Queertopia at Boston’s Club Café. I was excited to receive an invitation to participate, but even more excited when I learned that I would be reading in the same segment of the program with one of my new favorite writers, Aaron Smith. (more…)
‘Shine’ by Donnelle McGee
Posted on March 26, 2013 by L. Michael Gipson in Fiction, Reviews
Desperate times call for desperate measures, and all the characters in Donnelle McGee’s debut poetic prose novel seem infused with the utmost desperation. Capturing a bleak landscape of folks barely hanging on by their fingernails, McGee introduces us to a neo-realistic world of commercial sex workers, poor folks with AIDS, crooked cops, families struggling to survive abandonment and violence that is stark and emotionally raw. While its subjects and themes are sensationalistic, the treatment of his character’s lives is anything but in McGee’s assured and loving hands. Compassionate, considered, and knowing, the author uses a wide array of literary techniques to reveal the interiors and the fairly direct story of a tragedy whose foreboding conclusion appears inevitable almost from the start. (more…)
Bits & Pieces: Spring Lesbian Mystery Roundup
Posted on March 23, 2013 by Victoria Brownworth in Mystery, Opinion
Spring hints and hovers as is always the case in March, but there’s still a chill in the air, which makes it so much easier to curl up with a good mystery than start that pre-Passover, pre-Easter, pre-equinox cleaning. It has been a dreadful winter, but I spent a lot of time checking out mysteries I should have already read as well as some brand new ones. (more…)
‘Skin Shift’ by Matthew Hittinger
Posted on March 22, 2013 by Jerome Murphy in Poetry, Reviews
The distinctive poetic vision creates its own climate to which a reader, going from tourist to townie, can happily adapt. By the time readers of Skin Shift (Sibling Rivalry Press) encounter a deer-crossing sign with anatomy defaced in black magic marker, in the penultimate section’s “Sitting in a WaWa Parking Lot,” they are attuned to the phrase’s “black magic.” Double meanings abound in a landscape whose titular shift is both garment and metamorphosis. (more…)
‘Gay Press, Gay Power: The Growth of LGBT Community Papers in America’ edited by Tracy Baim
Posted on March 19, 2013 by Rachel Wexelbaum in Nonfiction, Reviews
Before the Internet, a savvy young queer person could learn about LGBT culture by acquiring a gay or lesbian newspaper. They were usually available in queer-friendly bookstores and other “community” establishments. For someone still living with homophobic parents, it took an act of courage to bring one of those papers home, for fear they would be discovered—but what a lifeline these papers provided for those kids stuck in suburbia or rural towns. They provided affirming images and stories about LGBT people, and connected us to LGBT-specific news that was not always covered in mainstream papers. 21st century youth, however, depend more on Facebook and Twitter for information about the LGBT scene. Is there still a place for LGBT community newspapers in the world of social media? Tracy Baim’s edited volume Gay Press, Gay Power: The Growth of LGBT Community Papers in America provides a history of the LGBT press, but no easy answers as to its future. (more…)
